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DETROIT (WWJ/AP) - Thirty-four Detroit Water and Sewerage workers who went on strike over pay cuts and the city’s plan to downsize the department over several years have been suspended without pay and face firing.

The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department says in a release Tuesday that the employees were notified Monday by certified letter of “their immediate suspension.” They’re expected to be terminated effective Oct. 10.

The workers from Local 207 of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees walked off the job Sunday at the city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant in protest of a proposal to cut 80 percent of the department’s workers. Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, in an agreement with the state to stave off a takeover of the city’s finances, had agreed to reduce the number of workers at the Wastewater Treatment Plant from 2,000 down to about 375.